Breaking Bonds
by 27dayz
Summary: When Elena returns to Mystic Falls, she must confront Caroline and Stefan, who are unwilling to believe that she is acting on her own free will. Perhaps there's a way to prove it to them, and a certain man back at the lake house. Damon, Elena, Stefan, Caroline centric.


**Breaking Bonds**

**Summary: **When Elena returns to Mystic Falls, she must confront Caroline and Stefan, who are unwilling to believe that she is acting on her own free will. Perhaps there's a way to prove it to them, and a certain man back at the lake house.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing.

"How many ways can you rip my heart out?" Stefan asked, understandably hurt and angry. All Elena could do was stand there and say nothing. He was right; she did hurt him. She broke up with him because of her feelings for Damon and then she acted on those feelings. She knew he would hurt when he found out and there was nothing she could say that would ever make him feel better.

"And do you know the worst part?" Stefan demanded, pacing like a caged lion up and down the row of desks, "Neither of you had the decency to tell me! I had to hear it from Caroline!" he snarled, hurling one of the desks across the classroom.

Elena blinked in confusion, but as quickly as the confusion came, it was replaced by anger and betrayal, "Caroline told you?" she asked, her voice low and thick. Stefan glared.

"Yeah. And you didn't," Stefan shot at her. Her vampire mind compartmentalized far faster than a human mind ever would. She would talk with Caroline later. Right now, she had to deal with the present.

"When was I given a chance?" Elena defended herself against the accusation, "Between you running to New Orleans and me helping to get Jeremy's mind straight, we were never in a room long enough for me to tell you!"

"Then Damon should have told me!" Stefan snarled, "He should have had the-"

"He was afraid!" Elena protested, unintentionally setting Stefan's teeth on edge.

"Right, that's what you do now, Elena. You make excuses for him!"

"You're his brother, Stefan! He loves you! He hates himself for falling for me and he hates what it will do to your relationship!" she revealed, remembering how Damon had returned from New Orleans just as the sun had been creeping into the boarding house. He had been so upset with himself, calling himself the bad guy and saying he was selfish.

"If he loved me, he would have never slept with you a day after we broke up!" Stefan countered, getting into her face with the speed of a vampire. That was a blow and Elena knew that hadn't been the best move on her part.

"Stefan, we broke up because I felt something for him, and I'll be the first to admit that the timing wasn't ideal, but Damon wasn't the only one there. I was there too and I didn't stop it because I do love him! I-"

"You're sired to him," Stefan reminded her. If she heard that word one more time, she was sure she would snap. Then Stefan's next words made her snap, "You only love him because of the sire bond!"

"So you don't think that I could love him unless I was being forced?" Elena demanded.

"Why else wouldn't he invoke the sire bond?" Stefan asked, "He finally has what he wants and he's too selfish to give you your freedom back!"

"He did invoke it!" Elena revealed.

"You were at the lake house together after he told me he did it!"

"He did it at the lake house! Why do you think I'm here and not with him and Jeremy?" Elena questioned, causing Stefan to blink in confusion, but then he seemed to realize something.

"He didn't tell you to forget him," he said, clinging to that.

"He set me free, Stefan," Elena said, hating herself a little for telling him this, "He set me free and I still love him. I can't forget him! I can't forget all that he's done for me or the way we feel for each other! I can't and I won't, not even if he marches in here and demands that I forget."

"And the way we felt for each other?" Stefan asked, his voice softer as he recovered from the blow, "That doesn't just disappear, Elena. And what about all the things I've done for you, am still doing for you? The cure?"

"Stefan..."

"Once you're human again, the sire bond will be gone," Stefan stated, still clinging to hope.

"I won't forget all that's happened..."

But Stefan didn't hear her.

""It will go away," he said, turning for the door and rushing out of it, his search for the cure renewed. He had to cure it. This wasn't his Elena. His human Elena would never hurt him like this.

Elena stood dumbfounded as she watched him leave. She didn't go after him. There was something off, something almost unhinged about the way he so desperately clung to any shred of them as a couple, even after she told him to move on. She knew he would go to any lengths for the cure and she knew that he would only be crushed once more when things didn't return to how they were. She knew now what her feelings were and that they were for Damon. She loved him and being away hurt so much that it was almost crippling. Her thoughts were still of him and only wanted to be where he was.

She started to move down the halls. She could pick up Stefan's scent and she intentionally took an exit where she wouldn't cross paths with him. She pushed on the door, stepping out into the sunshine, only to nearly collide with Caroline.

"Oh! Elena. Have you seen Stefan?" Caroline asked. Elena felt the betrayal rise up again at the sight of her childhood friend.

"You couldn't give me one day," Elena said lowly, "You just had to be the first to tell him, even though you promised me that you would let me do it!"

Caroline blanched, "Elena, it's not like that. Stefan had a right to know-"

"He had a right to know from ME!" Elena shouted, "They're MY relationships, Caroline! Not yours!"

"Stefan's my friend, Elena! While you were off getting cozy at the lake with Damon the vampire gigolo, he was trying to find a cure for you!" Caroline shouted back.

"Is that what you thought?" Elena scoffed, "Typical! I was at the lake house with my brother! I was helping him undo the damage of the hunter mark! Damon came along because I asked him to! He helped!"

"So he could get you back in his bed," Caroline scoffed, "and so you both could keep on screwing around behind Stefan's back!"

Elena glared, "Look, Caroline, whatever you think you know about me and Damon, you're wrong! He's changed! He's good to me and he will always do right by me! That's why he invoked the sire bond! He loves me and I love him!"

"Well obviously it didn't work," Caroline snipped back, "You're still talking crazy-"

"Then I'm going to prove it's real," Elena snarled, pushing past Caroline.

She drove to the lake house, not stopping, not turning around. Yes, her body protested, crying out against her disobeying him. She remembered being at the college campus when he had told her to drink from a girl. She had refused then. How was that even possible? Shouldn't she have obeyed his command? But she didn't. Somehow she had refused him. She went against his wishes. She focused on the feelings she felt at that time. She focused on the way she felt upon seeing the picture of the little girl. Despite the urge to feed, she had focused on her needs and wants. She couldn't hurt an innocent and not hurting the girl had made Elena happy.

Elena knew then what she needed to do. She couldn't focus only on Damon's happiness. She had to focus on what would make them BOTH happy. She repeated to herself the same line: "I don't want to make him happy. I want to make us happy." It helped her ignore the urge to turn around. It helped her pull into the drive and walk behind they cabin where she could hear Damon, Matt, and Jeremy sparring.

Damon was against a tree, watching Matt and Jeremy fight. The first one to see her was Matt.

"Elena?" he questioned. Jeremy and Damon snapped to attention. Elena focused on Damon and the surprise on his face. He looked as if he were seeing a ghost. She walked forward.

"Elena, what are you doing here? Damon invoked the sire bond," Jeremy stated, just as confused as the others.

"Well, I'm breaking it," Elena told him, rapidly closing the distance between herself and Damon, who was rooted to the spot.

"Elena...

"I love you, Damon. When you're not around, I'm miserable. This is to make me happy," she said firmly. She closed the distance, her lips slamming against his in a fiery, passionate kiss. It took him a second to respond and believe that she was actually here, pressing against him, even though he had banished her to Mystic Falls and set her free.

As impossible as he thought it was, she had broken the sire bond. She had defied him and came back. As he gave in and kissed her, he wondered if it was in him to let her go a second time. Could he really give her up again?

No, he couldn't.

The End


End file.
